History: Examination of early Windows 8 build shows origins of Metro

Reverse engineering apps to unlock hidden features has become somewhat of a hobby and today hacker Albacore has been pulling apart the first leaked build of Windows 8, build 7850,  which was leaked on the 2011-04-12.

That build still had the 6.1 kernel and said Windows 7 in many locations, but it had the first inklings of Metro, including the charms bar and early live tiles.

Almost 10 years later: the beginnings of Metro, uncovered.
This is the first time we get to see the UI / charms selection that @ChenCravat mentioned here: https://t.co/Sks94HjlU0
More screens soon ?
cc @h0x0d pic.twitter.com/mlw2he6qAF

— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) March 1, 2020

Another thing I'd like to point out is the likely reason why the beloved and eventually forgotten user tile made an appearance in first place.
Notice how barren the Launcher is. With that in mind + no old Start menu in sight, this was your only place for power actions. pic.twitter.com/hilxhWcRlO

— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) March 2, 2020

You may be intrigued by the small black strip at the bottom. This is called the Horizon. At this stage its only purpose is to take you to a Metro Flow that was entirely scrapped before M2 really hit. Behold: the Downspace, barely functional. It provides an interface for snapping. pic.twitter.com/eK4ZAUtNDd

— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) March 2, 2020

That's not to say that there's nothing else this build has to offer. Hidden behind redpill is the new multi-monitor taskbar. I find it quite amusing that the second one comes with no Start button this early. pic.twitter.com/vTvHsk2Avf

— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) March 2, 2020

The lookback is somewhat appropriate after we heard over the weekend that Microsoft may be looking at removing Live Tiles from Windows 10, which is one of the last element of that aborted computing generation in the Windows operating system.